Transform Higher Ed Processes with Top Contract Management Tools
If you are fed up spending large sums of money on institutional operations and looking for an efficient alternative to regulate the process, you have landed in the right place. The higher education system is highly compressed these days. From cost management to dealing with the inefficiencies of the operational plan, institutions are facing trouble in coping with diverse contract types. Well, here comes the role of contract management software for higher education that simultaneously improves productivity and efficiency of the system, reducing expenses on contract management processes.
Contract Management System in Higher Education
Contracts in higher education are typically multi-year agreements with several deliverables and milestones, requiring various levels of oversight from numerous parties.
Universities provide numerous services and facilities to their students, but they have limited resources to perform such operations. Therefore, they need to adopt an education contract management system to assist them in managing contracts and ensuring that the university’s obligations are met.
However, education contract management software can help colleges and universities keep track of their contracts and ensure fulfillment of their expectations regarding safety. Some of the common contract types in higher education are as follows:
1. Data Transfer Agreements(DTA)
2. Funded Research Agreements
3. Non Disclosure or Secrecy Agreements
4. Letter of Undertaking(LOU)
5. Material Transfer Agreements
6. Software License Agreements(SLA)
7. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
8. Subcontracts (Ingoing or Outgoing)
9. Consortium Agreements
10. Co-operative Agreements
Contract Management Challenges for Educational Sectors
The education industry encounters various challenges when it comes to contract management, including:
● Traction of Contract Financials
● Storage of Contract Documents from external breaches
● Visibility Maintenance regarding operational system
● Automation of Contract Expiration and Renewal
How Does Education Contract Management Software Help to Solve These Challenges?
Traction of Contract Financials
Higher education contract management software helps monitor contract finance by generating reports on key financial data, keeping track of transactions, establishing alerts, and performing statistical analysis of contracts in real-time.
Storage of Contract Documents
Organizing and storing documents across the legal, finance, procurement, and other departments are no big deal now. The university contract management software provides a secure location, ensuring easy access to authorized employees. It helps maintain confidentiality and safeguard documents from internal and external breaches.
Visibility Maintenance Regarding Operational System
Lack of visibility across the multiple departments of an institution creates uncertainty at some level that could result in repetitive contracts with the same vendors multiple times. This way, vendors may get the advantage of testing multiple service terms and prices.
With education contract management software, the universities and educational sectors can locate an agreement previously made in the contract lifecycle. This way, the users have an idea of former vendors, their associate price, and contractual obligations reviewing each agreement.
Automation of Contract Expiration and Renewal
Managing contract expiration, renewal, and delivery dates are critical to mitigating the risks ahead of time. Studies show that companies have to bear a 9% loss in annual revenue due to ineffective contract management.
Contract management software for higher education processes email alerts, calendar reminders, and in-platform notifications to track and plan key dates before time.
5 Ways Contract Management Software for Higher Education Supports its Processes
1. Reduction of Cost and Time Spent Authoring Contracts
The contract management software makes the contract creation process elementary and interactive with multiple tools. The users can draft a document using various templates available per the contract type. Moreover, the electronic signing procedure cuts the duration enabling a user-friendly interface.
2. Maximize Organizational Transparency
It helps maximize organizational transparency by providing an overview of the status of each academic unit. This information is useful for administrators, parents, and students as it allows them to make informed decisions. Also, reducing the possibility of disputes arising from miscommunication between parties.
3. Reduce Contract Lifecycle Time
The standardized templates available on the software reduce the time of drafting and negotiating contracts. It results in the acceleration of the contract life cycle, shortening the time required manually.
4. Enhance Productivity
The contract management software tools, custom templates, real-time data storage, and ultimate collaboration ease the entire process. The facilitative environment results in a higher productivity rate in managing workflow timely.
5. Save Office Space
The contract storage on a cloud system has made the process of searching and accessing seamless. It eliminates the need to stay in the workspace physically every time by successfully introducing digital configurations.
Features to Consider in Contract Management Software for Higher Education
User-Friendly Interface
A contract management system should have an intuitive interface that is easy to understand. It will exclude the chances of employee frustration and prolong contract execution.
Integration with other Business
Contract management software should sync with other business systems. Customer relationship software, when combined with contract automation software, grants a multitasking effect of improved customer relationships and provides automated contract workflows.
Customizable Reporting
One of the most crucial aspects of contract management software is the reporting system tailored to your company. It gives a broad perspective and more valuable work management insights.
Roles and Permission Settings
The feature of permission setting is imperative to protect an institution’s contracts, data, and intellectual property from malware and phishing attacks.
Conclusion
Hence, contract management software for higher education has benefited many educational sectors by automating the process. By saving time and money, policymakers can pay more attention to the neglected areas for profound consequences.
